Professional Ant Exterminator Services in Charlotte, NC
Ants can be one of the most unpleasant surprises to find in your kitchen, pantry, and home. Unfortunately, they’re also among the most common critters to find. Their small size makes it all too easy for them to enter your house and they can be very challenging to get rid of once they do get inside.
If you live in the Greater Charlotte metro area and you’ve got an ant infestation, contact us online for help or call 704-499-9922.
Keeping Ants Out
Although they can be pretty crafty creatures, there are ways to help keep ants out of your home. Besides keeping doors and windows closed except when absolutely necessary, caulk cracks and holes around them. This includes in window frames and woodwork, as well as in areas around pipes and cables coming into the house. Although some determined ants will still find their way indoors, this can help to reduce their numbers.
Also, trim back trees and bushes that are located close to your home. When they’re up against your house, they can serve as entry ramps for ants.
Although ants enjoy munching on food in your pantry, there are some substances that turn them off. If for example, you spray citrus juice around doors and windows, this can throw off ants’ sense of smell and they may turn around. Or you can use peppermint oil for the same purpose.
You can also place a line of flour, talc, or chalk around windows and doors, or put it in your pantry. This thwarts ants’ ability to create and follow scent trails. Other substances that can do the same: pepper, cinnamon, chili, cloves, bay leaves, and salt.
Indoors, use a mixture of vinegar and water to wipe down kitchen counters, because this can also repel the ants. Sprinkle used coffee grounds in your flower beds and around the home’s foundation and they’ll head elsewhere. If you choose to use one or more of these methods, you’ll need to keep them up. These aren’t one-and-done treatments.
It’s important to make it difficult for ants to find food in your home. Keep all open foods tightly sealed in plastic or glass containers. Scrape and wash dishes when done eating and empty your trash often. To keep ants from heading to your home for water, fix dripping faucets, and eliminate any standing water, such as in sinks.
Ants and Diseases
Bacteria carried in by ants can include E. coli, Streptococcus, Shigella, Salmonella,and Staphylococcus, none of which you want in your food. Although the University of California-Berkely notes that the risk of disease transmission is not large, it’s still much better to not have ants crawling in your food.
Identifying Ant Infestations
If you see just a few ants in your house, you may or may not have a true infestation. If, though, you see a trail of ants—with one of them walking right behind another—then you probably do have a problem. Ants are highly efficient creatures. So, once they find a nice source of food, such as in your kitchen or pantry, they’ll leave a trail for other ants to follow. Then, they’ll simply walk between their colony and the food, and back again—with new ants able to follow that same trail to your food.
If you see large numbers of ants near your home, then there is likely a colony on your property. You might see ant piles, which are dirt mounds that could house literally thousands of ants. If these piles are especially close to your home, the bigger the problem you could have.
Also, check in and around your pets’ bowls. You could be doing an excellent job of keeping food sealed in your pantry, but then the savvy ants may simply switch their attention elsewhere, including Fido’s food.
Fire Ant Threat
Fire ants can be downright dangerous—and their stings can be fatal for people who are allergic to them. The South America red imported fire ant can drop an adult male (middle-aged, 250 pounds) in fewer than ten minutes. So, if this dangerous creature is on your property, fire ant control services are crucial.
Over the next decade, it’s expected that the fire ant will become even more of a problem, one of the most challenging pests to control. That’s why we are paying close attention to the fire ant, providing homeowners and business owners with a state of the ant extermination solution.
We leverage the latest fire ant treatments available from our manufacturers and take full advantage of training opportunities to keep our clients’ properties as free from fire ants as possible. In fact, Noosa offers customized fire ant control solutions to ensure that you get exactly the ant exterminator services you need.
Choosing Noosa for Ant Pest Control Services
Located in Charlotte, North Carolina, Noosa Pest Management is a locally owned and operated company, headed up by Fred Wingate (or, as we like to call him, Chief Bugman!). We are dedicated to providing each and every one of our clients with the highest level of service, guaranteeing immediate response during business hours.
We take a conservative approach in our treatments—meaning that we proceed with great care when it comes to exposing people and the environment to insecticides. Our technicians receive quality training so they are knowledgeable about the latest pests in our area; the newest insecticides; and the best application methods. Our full-sized trucks are packed with whatever our technicians might need to address your problem.
Why do we do all this? Because we consider our clients part of the Noosa family, treating others as we’d like to be treated. Our team will spend as much time as needed to address your ant control situation (and whatever other pest control needs you have), answering all of your questions. If you want access to the company’s owner, just ask! It’s really that simple.
If you need ant control services, including fire ant treatments, just contact us online for help or call 704-499-9922.
Ant Exterminator FAQs
At Noosa Pest Management, we start by listening to your concerns and then performing a home inspection. We’ll identify the species and the size of the ant population—plus where they are in the home. Next up: personalized recommendations with ant pest control treatments applied with a conservative approach to protect people and the environment. Our ant exterminators are trained in the latest techniques and provided with the best, most up to date products, and our trucks contain whatever they might need for your ant pest control needs. We also offer fire ant extermination services; this species can be dangerous, especially for people who get stung multiple times or are allergic, so don’t try to address this issue yourself.
These can really be pesky critters with a long-time or large infestation able to do significant damage to your home. Carpenter ant control consists of verifying the species and then finding and removing/destroying their nests. This species can be challenging to identify because there are a couple dozen types with their size and color varying among subspecies—plus, during mating season, winged carpenter ants can be confused with termites. So, contacting a professional exterminator for ants is the best solution, and Noosa offers highly effective carpenter ant control services that are applied with great care to protect your family and the environment.
Step one is to get rid of any current populations. If you just see a couple of ants in your home, you very well may well have an infestation. DIY treatments may not be enough and will require the help of a professional exterminator for ants. Once the ant exterminator has addressed the problem, you can use the techniques recommended on this page to help keep them away. Keep doors and windows closed except when absolutely necessary, and caulk holes and cracks around them. Trim bushes and trees near your home; clean up food immediately after eating, including crumbs; fix dripping faucets and leaky pipes; remove standing water; and so forth.
Because ants are such small and crafty creatures, this still may not permanently prevent them from entering your home. If you spot some, address the problem, ASAP. If DIY methods aren’t working, contact us for pest control for ants online or by calling 704-499-9922.
First, people working in our family owned and operated business care about the community and are trained to provide personalized service with the highest levels of care for every client. We know that ant problems can be highly frustrating and so we respond immediately during business hours (just call 704-499-9922) to address your challenges. We make sure that everyone gets enough time to ask questions and get them answered and, if you ever want to talk to the Chief Bugman, Fred Wingate, just ask!